Take a ramble with me.

Second ramble

He had never seen nor heard of anything like it before in his entire life. 

No, that wasn't true. He had heard of it before, in the stories told by the old drunken men. Men whose eyes were sunken in and were red rimmed, men whose bony, gaunt bodies shook with every ragged gasp of air they took in and let go. Men who alienated everyone with their tales of things that could never, in this normal, realistic world, be true and took solace in any form of liquor. Maybe he was simply exhausted from the hard work he had put in both today and the day before and the day before that and....

Was his life really so simple and unchanging? Maybe thats why he had thought he saw her, no, saw the thing. To make a change in his life that he so definitely needed.

But if it wasn't real, no not 'if,' then didn't that mean something was wrong with him mentally? It was only logical to come to this conclusion. If he was mentally unstable then would it be so wrong of him to indulge in the fantasy that his ill brain had concocted? To go back to the place where it had all began and seek her out? 

He didn't care if it was wrong or barely justifiable, he just wanted to see her again. 

The first time he had laid eyes on her everything that those crumpled old sea-dogs had told him, and anyone within shouting range, came roaring into his mind. 

They were beautiful but not in the way he had imagined when he was but a little boy. Back then he had thought that they would have long flowing hair, tanned smooth skin, a beautiful shimmering tail and a lovely, smiling face. 

Reality was different from his imaginations. 

Long flowing hair was short and spiky. Tanned skin was instead pale to the point of being almost translucent, dark lines could be seen and it took him a moment to realize that they were actually her veins. That beautiful shimmering tail was beautiful but instead of shimmering it seemed to engulf any light around it. That smiling face? 

The smiling face was the same though. 

Moving quickly and wearing a smile he made his way to the spot where he had imagined her hoping to see her again. He was rewarded. 

She lay there waiting for him, that smile still on her face as she spoke: "Its lovely to see you again."  

He moved closer until he was laying down besides her and simply smiled and nodded his head. The act of forming and voicing words in a coherent fashion in the face of such beauty was impossible. 

That smile of hers widened: "I'm starving. Do you mind if I dig in?"

He of course just nodded. She, too, nodded. 

Suddenly that smiling face contorted. Her mouth opened wide and her jaw seemed to unhinge. Four rows of pointed teeth could suddenly be seen and those soft warm eyes turned as pitch black. She was on him quickly, her long fingers burrowing into his chest and her mouth clamped down on his throat. 

Within moments he was nothing more than a pulpy, bloody mess on the rocky floor and she was already slithering back into the water.